Another reason dogs rule: They know what you're thinking

[Shadow]

Scientists have finally proven what every dog owner knows – our canine friends read our facial expressions like dedicated detectives.
Dogs don’t just depend on verbal commands to figure out what we want, a new study shows. Instead, they look deeply into our eyes and try to guess what we’re up to, according to the study published in Current Biology.

Hungarian researchers showed that dogs will even follow our gaze if we make eye contact with them first.
This study “reveals that dogs are receptive to human communication in a manner that was previously only attributed only to 6-month-old human infants,” said study co-author Jozsef Topal a researcher at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...youre-thinking

[darin]

They had me until:

“Dogs have evolved to sharing their lives with humans,” Topal said. “And they gained new skills that support their social interaction with humans.”

silliness.

[Noir]

Ofcourse they've evolved new skills since being with humans, there are some very well known studies on the adaptation process from Wolf to Dog, it only takes a few generations.

If they had not changed their very nature then it would be impossible to have a dog as a pet and breed from them other dogs pets.

[ConHog]

They had me until:

silliness.

No doubt, until my dog learns how to utilize the toilet, I love him but he aint no more skilled than the cows out in the field.

[darin]

Ofcourse they've evolved new skills since being with humans, there are some very well known studies on the adaptation process from Wolf to Dog, it only takes a few generations.

If they had not changed their very nature then it would be impossible to have a dog as a pet and breed from them other dogs pets.

Has anyone observed dogs from 10,000 years ago to know they've changed their behaviour? Nope - somebody is observing something and proclaiming it learned without a baseline.

Don't you think it's a little silly to say things about current behavior? Did humans 'evolve' to like bacon, or did we always like bacon? We have no idea.

Leads me to think the person making that statement is foolish enough to think difference species "evolved" from a single common ancestor. That notion is hilariously silly.

[Noir]

Has anyone observed dogs from 10,000 years ago to know they've changed their behaviour? Nope - somebody is observing something and proclaiming it learned without a baseline.

Don't you think it's a little silly to say things about current behavior? Did humans 'evolve' to like bacon, or did we always like bacon? We have no idea.

Leads me to think the person making that statement is foolish enough to think difference species "evolved" from a single common ancestor. That notion is hilariously silly.

The question of how dogs came from wolves is an interesting one, after all they are so different, wolves are almost always aggressive, dogs not so, wolves have pointy ears and tales, dogs tend to have floppy ears & curly tails, dogs tend to have much shorter limbs etc etc.

However, studies have shown that changing just one characteristic, aggression, the rest follows. If you breed aggression out of a wolf then its ears will go floppy, its tail curly, it will be more playful etc.

You however seem to be under the idea that because we did not see what wolves were like 10,000 years ago then we can never know anything about them or their evolutionary path. Which i find bizarre.

[fj1200]

They had me until:

silliness.

Are you saying that dogs of 10,000+ years ago are essentially the same as today? Nova? on PBS had a show about dogs and referenced a Russian experiment that bred foxes from wild to tame in essentially two generations just by breeding the foxes that showed a tendency to acclimate to humans. You might call that selective breeding but dogs are undoubtedly different today than years ago; just look at the bulldog of 200 years ago compared to the nightmare that a bulldog is today.

[darin]

Are you saying that dogs of 10,000+ years ago are essentially the same as today? Nova? on PBS had a show about dogs and referenced a Russian experiment that bred foxes from wild to tame in essentially two generations just by breeding the foxes that showed a tendency to acclimate to humans. You might call that selective breeding but dogs are undoubtedly different today than years ago; just look at the bulldog of 200 years ago compared to the nightmare that a bulldog is today.

I'm saying we don't know how dogs communicated 10000 years ago in relation to how they do now. The guy used 'evolved' a way to be around humans, yet he has no basis for how dogs related to humans in eons past. There's no baseline to show change.

[Abbey Marie]

Scientists have finally proven what every dog owner knows – our canine friends read our facial expressions like dedicated detectives.
Dogs don’t just depend on verbal commands to figure out what we want, a new study shows. Instead, they look deeply into our eyes and try to guess what we’re up to, according to the study published in Current Biology.

Hungarian researchers showed that dogs will even follow our gaze if we make eye contact with them first.
This study “reveals that dogs are receptive to human communication in a manner that was previously only attributed only to 6-month-old human infants,” said study co-author Jozsef Topal a researcher at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...youre-thinking

Link isn't working now. But based on the part you quoted, and the title, I'd say that dogs may have some very rudimentary idea what we are feeling, as in our emotional state, but they surely don't know what we are thinking. I would think that living in the wild in packs, as wolves and their ancestors did, then needed to develop a good ability to discern what others in the pack were "feeling" to survive.

[Jess]

Link isn't working now. But based on the part you quoted, and the title, I'd say that dogs may have some very rudimentary idea what we are feeling, as in our emotional state, but they surely don't know what we are thinking. I would think that living in the wild in packs, as wolves and their ancestors did, then needed to develop a good ability to discern what others in the pack were "feeling" to survive.

Dogs are very good at reading non-verbal cues, to be sure. They've had to be, both in their wild state and into domesticity. How else have they become "man's best friend" and such an integral part of our lives?

My personal opinion, and I have nothing except having dogs of different breeds my entire life up til now, is that many of the non-verbal cues they get come from chemical/hormonal secretions that we don't even know we're giving off.

[Abbey Marie]

Dogs are very good at reading non-verbal cues, to be sure. They've had to be, both in their wild state and into domesticity. How else have they become "man's best friend" and such an integral part of our lives?

My personal opinion, and I have nothing except having dogs of different breeds my entire life up til now, is that many of the non-verbal cues they get come from chemical/hormonal secretions that we don't even know we're giving off.

Have you seen the show "Ghost Hunters"? On last night's episode, the dog they bring on their investigations, who is always very calm, and never looks scared of anything, got really scared of something in a hallway. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, that dog sensed something that no one else could see or hear, with some special perceptions she had.

[Jess]

Have you seen the show "Ghost Hunters"? On last night's episode, the dog they bring on their investigations, who is always very calm, and never looks scared of anything, got really scared of something in a hallway. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, that dog sensed something that no one else could see or hear, with some special perceptions she had.

I saw the preview for it but not the episode.

Horses are known for "knowing what people are thinking" too. I would say the same goes - both have extraordinary sense of smell and both have learned to watch us very carefully to pick up cues.

Interesting that both creatures have had such an impact on our survival over the years, isn't it? If we'd had to rely on cats, they'd rule the world and we'd be dead.